.SPACE LEEK
- AN ONION ODYSSEY
Space Leek - An Onion Odyssey is a charming and playful 3D-platformer with an emphasis on exploration, fast paced platforming and some combat elements. By rolling, jumping, swinging and grappling you navigate the alien environment, avoid hazardous obstacles, and fight enemies whilst also uncovering the truth about the ancient civilisation that used to live here.
Space Leek was a school project in game development where I was the Technical Artist and Creative Director as well as Scrum Master. On this page I will present part of my work with some deep dives into the design decisions throughout the development process.
If you would like to play Space Leek, please see the link at the bottom of this page to download the game for Windows for free. And see the ArtStation page here on the right for more pictures and renders!
DATE
Spring 2023
SOFTWARE
Unreal Engine 5, Maya, Procreate, Adobe Photoshop
PROJECT TYPE
Game Development - Tech Art, Creative Director, Scrum Master
ARTSTATION PAGE
.MY ROLES
.TECHNICAL
ARTIST
As the sole Technical Artist for Space Leek my main responsibility was to create all VFX and post-process effects throughout the game as well as create tools and methods to incorporate the art into the game in a way that would maintain the creative profile. I developed shaders and created the lighting and environment for the levels throughout the whole game.
.CREATIVE DIRECTOR
The role of Creative Director meant a responsibility over developing a strong creative profile for the game and communicating this to the rest of the team. I made sure this was a collaborative process between all members, with the people within creative roles taking the most responsibility. As the Creative Director, I lead and oversaw the whole creative process throughout the development. The role also meant I supervised the work of the entire development team to ensure we stayed in line with the creative vision of the game.
.SCRUM
MASTER
I was also the Scrum Master of the Space Leek project. Besides having daily stand-up meetings and setting up deadlines throughout all phases of the production I also followed up on those deadlines and made sure the project stayed organised and documented. Simultaneously, I made sure the team maintained an open and communicative group dynamic.
.MY GOALS & VALUES
.A STRONG CREATIVE PROFILE
Given my roles, one of my primary objectives throughout the project was to create a strong creative profile. It was important that it spoke to the audience in a way would guide the player experiences towards our intended feelings and perceptions. Beyond just sticking to a color scheme or art style for the models, this also meant making decisions that would ensure the profile was well articulated through the final product. This included everything from what direction the light sources came from and what color they had, to how and where objects were placed in the environment to correspond to the backstory, to the pace of the music and what texture the sound effects portrayed. Furthermore, the objective of articulating a creative vision in all aspects of the game also meant, on the more practical side, developing a standard in how we incorporated and communicated this to the players in the best way possible, overseeing the different development processes in order to do so.
.GOOD TEAM DYNAMICS
One of my main beliefs is that a well oiled machine creates good products. I found it very important to quickly establish an open and respectful work dynamic within the team, initiating the whole project with meetings regarding roles, expertises and work ethics. By not throwing ourselves head first into the project but instead prioritising creating a well constructed base to build upon, I am proud to say we had a shockingly smooth and comfortable development process throughout the whole project.
.INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITIES
Due to the absence of product owners or stakeholders for the Space Leek project, we were all equal in the ownership of the product. No one had, by principal, the final say in anything regarding the overall game design. However, in order for the members to feel a sense of agency and importance, I considered it to be important to communicate individual areas of responsibilities. Through this approach we were able to set up responsibility-oriented tasks rather than the actual tasks themselves which allowed us to not only create a more cohesive product but also work more efficiently.
.VISUAL WORK
.LIGHTING
As part of my job of creating the different environments within the game world, I was in charge of creating the lighting for the whole game. I generated a pallet for the different levels, including what feelings and stories the spaces would communicate to the player. The pallets consisted mostly of descriptions of moods, storytelling and temperatures for me to reference while working in the game engine. It was important for me to make design decisions that corresponded with the story and pacing of the game.
The first level was meant to portray a feeling of a dense, sentient forest with little to no possibility of getting a spatial overview of the area. For the first level, we see a lot of warm tones where the saturated in-game objects can stand out for the player to experience for the first time. The lux intensity is relatively low as if due to the dense vegetation and I incorporated sun rays peeking through the forest ceiling for that magical look.
For the second level the stakes and pacing increased as the character ventured into a hazardous area of the world. I incorporated purple hues in the world lighting to refer to the poisonous waters that dominated the level, and added some greens to the fog to bring out the sense of decay and mystery throughout the space. The colors were significantly more muted compared to the first level and, as a contrast, I added warm yellowish tones for the guiding light sources that the player would feel more drawn to compared to the dark, muted and cold environment.
The third and last level introduced a new jumping mechanic that demanded a more open space regarding the level and environment design. Deciding to play on this, as well as the idea that the player just had navigated out of a dense and hostile area, I went for a neutral, slightly cooler palette. While designing the lighting in this level, I drew heavy inspiration from the daybreak during the Scandinavian summers and strived for a quiet, fresh feeling of the area.
.VISUAL EFFECTS
The stylised aesthetic of Space Leek meant finding new ways to work with the special effects tools in Unreal Engine compared to what I was used to, especially the materials and the Niagara System. Due to the lighthearted characteristics of the game, the VFXs for Space Leek primarily consisted of particle effects. Through multiple iterations and feedback from game testers, the visuals harmoniously blended into the rest of the game while still offering large amounts of feedback to the player.
Due to the large number of different effects within the game, it would be quite tedious to list and explain them all here on this page. Luckily, there is a dedicated ArtStation page specifically for the VFXs I created for Space Leek, with video examples and behind the scenes work flow explanations. Go to the page here.
Water splash when the character is falling into dangerous waters. The effect use many different layers and materials to create a balance between the physically correct movements and the stylised look. By creating specific shaders and using randomized values, the splash looks different every time.
The Super Attack is charged up from electrical energy in blue crystals in the game. As well as using several layers for the effect, I also created and used different animated materials to give the effect a more alive feeling while also fading away in a natural way.
.SHADERS
One of the main shaders I spent time on perfecting was the stylised water shader. The material would not only be used for the puddles that would help bring the world to life, but also as a poisonous hazard that the player would have to avoid. One of the main challenges was communicating to the player that one was dangerous while the other was not, without any explicit explanation. This was done by giving one instance a clear, bluish green color with smaller and faster wave movements that would organically make sense in the rest of the environment. These clear puddles were also significantly smaller in both depth and size compared to the hazardous water which were more opaque and moved a lot slower. The dangerous water also had larger waves and a strong, dark purple color with added bubbles over it to indicate that the element was unnatural.
By panning multiple different texture samples and layering these with a variety of normal maps, I created the illusion of waves on the surface. I promoted parameters for the panning speed, normal strength, color and depth opacity to offer more freedom while placing the shaders into the different levels. This would allow for multiple instances of the same parent material.
Despite the stylised look of the water, I wanted it to organically coexist in its environment. After a few iterations and a lot of math, the material naturally reacts to any object that it comes into contact with by showing white “foamy” lines along the edges.
Another shader of importance was the crystal shader. Since interacting with the crystal would give the player new power upgrades, the material had to stand out enough to draw the player towards it while still making sense in the context of the world. The majority of the objects in the game space is characterised by bold colors and intricate patterns, so a minimalistic material would stand out.
Giving the material a glow in the dark effect by emitting some light gave a supernatural feeling to the crystal. This feeling was furthermore increased by saturating the light ever so slightly.
By panning a selfmade mask over the different parts of the material I gave the crystal a more electric look. This referenced the game context since the player would use the charged up power from the crystal in their attacks.
.DIRECTING THE UI
Referring to my role as the Creative Director, I oversaw the creation of the User Interface for the whole game, from the main menu and title screen to the in game interface and pause screen. It was important that the game's charming and whimsical style also blended into its UI in order to give the game a polished look. The iterative workflow facilitated in finding a balance between a playful and yet simple look that wouldn't take away too much attention from the actual gameplay. Wanting the amount of text to be minimal, I had to find ways to use symbols and a just a few words to communicate with the player. Central to the design decisions was the question "What does the player need to know?" at any given moment while playing.
The logbook is where a lot of the storytelling takes place, as well as where we get to know the main character better. Here is the first concept for the logbook menu and then a screenshot from the final product.
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Clean, intriguing, dramatic and calm - these were the key elements I referenced while designing the main menu for Space Leek. Before the player gets to the menu, there's a short cutscene where the spaceship of the main character crash lands on an unknown planet. By showing the crash site in the background of the main menu it gives context to the viewer as well as adding a dramatic effect. The camera is positioned and the objects are placed to give some negative space on the side for the UI elements to clearly stand out.
I authored all of the dialoge and story throughout Space Leek. In practice, the dialogue was an extension of the character and world building since it had to be written from the perspective of the different characters. For example, the main character's dialogue had to mimic their innocent and optimistic traits, constantly curios of its surroundings, while the sidekick's formulations had to indicate a timid and insecure personality.
.PROMOTIONAL CONTENT
I oversaw and assisted with creating all of the promotional content for Space Leek project. This included directing the official poster and supervising the creation of the trailer (at the top of this page). It also meant creating an itch.io website that corresponded with the creative profile, designing logotypes and banners as well as creating a name for our development team.
Download and play SPACE LEEK - An Onion Odyssey for free here.
.LESSONS AND TAKEAWAYS
This was the first ever project where I got to develop a fully fleshed out game. Of course this came with huge amounts of lessons and experiences that I will bring with me going forward into new projects. While learning from mistakes and failures is key to expanding your skills, I feel it is equally as important to draw lessons from positive experiences.
I am incredibly proud of how we kept a great group dynamic and workflow throughout the whole project. There was a constant sense of respect between all members which improved the overall work ethic. We stuck to our initial schedule, staying organised and honest during the few times we fell behind in our work. Furthermore, I take pride in the respectful way we handled conflicts, though these turned out to be extremely rare. When a team member repeatedly did not meet the deadlines without providing any explanation or asking for assistance, I realised the importance of discussion a solution instead of the problem. This positive way of handling group dynamics is something I am very proud of and proved to be a lot more productive as well.
One of my main takeaways from this project is my improved ability to trust others within a team of people I had little to no experience in working with. Even though my roles meant having an insight in most areas of the production I still learned to fully hand over my trust to other team members and then mentally letting it go until the next checkup. I also learned that this sense of trust is not only respectful towards others, but it also increases the willingness within the individual to meet those expectations which in the end will create a better product. I am proud to say that I am now constantly making sure to communicate to group members how their skills and abilities are worth trusting.
If I were to do this project all over again I would love to be more comfortable in Blueprints within Unreal Engine. Before Space Leek, I admit I hadn't prioritized getting familiar with it. Even though Blueprints were not at all essential to the work I personally did for Space Leek, the project opened up my eyes for how useful it could be to feel comfortable with the tool. This insight has lead me to pursue exploring Blueprints more in order to expand my knowledge as well as tool development within Unreal Engine.